The tornadoes reported in Colorado and Kansas as a severe meteorological threat persists
On Sunday, several tornadoes caused damage in several Counties in Colorado and a small town in Kansas as part of a severe storm system which was to bring strong winds and raised the size of the golf balls in certain parts of the Midwest to Monday.
A tornado tore the city of Grinnell, Kan., Sunday evening, tearing the roof of a church and destroying several other structures, according to the photos shared by NWKS Radio. The city, which has a population of less than 300 people, is around 125 miles north of Dodge City.
Part of the interstate 70 nearby has been closed due to slaughtered power lines, said Lisa Mussman from Kansas Department of Transportation.
On Sunday, in Colorado, there were several tornadoes reported in communities outside Denver. A tornado approached at least three times near Bennett, a city of approximately 2,800 inhabitants east of Denver, damaging seventeen buildings, including six houses, said the Sheriff’s office of the county of Arapahoe.
The tornadoes in the county of Elbert, southeast of Denver, caused different levels of damage to 19 houses, said Kara Gerczynski, the public information officer for Elizabeth Fire Rescue. Many residents were without electricity on Sunday evening, she added.
Videos published on social networks have shown funnel clouds that tear in the Colorado districts, some of which have leveled houses and left behind scattered debris.
A large tornado was reported near the city of Haviland, Ks., And another approached the city of Greensburg, said the meteorological service. The extent of the damage in these places was not immediately known. Kansas games remained under tornado warnings on Sunday evening.
The violent weather should last until Monday, according to the Storm prediction center of the National Weather Service. Forecasts are potentially for “all serious dangers”, including hail larger than golf balls, strong winds and tornadoes.
The risk is distributed over a wide range of the middle of the country, but focuses on the central plains of the Missouri on Monday.
The trigger of bad weather occurs while the Midwest and the Northeast are recovering from a wave of deadly storms that generated several strong tornadoes on Friday. In Missouri and Kentucky, tornadoes killed at least 25 people, officials said. A rare storm of dust swept the center of Illinois and Chicago.
The violent time strikes at a time when the weather service faces staff shortages after the Trump administration ordered cuts. Nearly 600 people left layoffs and retirements.
A forecast office in Jackson, Ky., Which was directly in the line of Tornades on Friday evening, is one of the four that is no longer with enough staff to operate at any time.
This would have been without forecastist overnight, said Tom Fahy, the union’s legislative director, who represents meteorological services. But after a race “all hands on the bridge”, he said, the office remained open and was fully equipped with staff, issuing 11 tornado warnings.
The other three forecast offices are in Sacramento; Hanford, California; and Goodland, Kan. Four others, said Mr. Fahy, are days to lose their night staff: in Cheyenne, Wyo.; Marquette, Mich.; Pendleton, Ore.; And Fairbanks, Alaska.
On Sunday, there was an improved risk – level 3 out of 5, in the categories of meteorological service – for bad weather in northern Texas, west of Oklahoma, Kansas, southwest Nebraska and the extreme northeast of Colorado.
“The biggest threat is the potential for hail,” said Brian Hurley, a meteorologist of the Weather Prediction Center. “The hail of the golf at the size of the baseball is planned.”
Wichita and Topeka in Kansas are two of the most populous areas where thunderstorms could develop.
The area is also at risk of Supercellules, which are more durable storms that generate a large hail and stronger winds than typical thunderstorms. They can also cause powerful tornadoes.
“The highest threat of tornado will be from the center and southern Kansas in Oklahoma,” said Hurley.
The serious threat was a classic storm configuration in a notorious area for tornadoes, hail and wind.
“The southern plains forecasting environment predicts a volatile configuration that has not been observed for five to 10 years,” said Sean Waugh, a researcher at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Laboratory.
The risk of tornadoes in the region will remain in place on Monday. There should also be rain in the mixture.
Showers and thunderstorms could produce heavy rains on certain parts of the southern plains and in the Mississippi valley in the middle and bottom, and they should be more concentrated on the central plains of Missouri and Arkansas on Monday.
On Tuesday, the storm system will move east, bringing the threat of violent time to Midwest, Tennessee Valley and Ohio Valley.
“The biggest threat will be wind and hail again, but the threat of sudden floods will also be there,” said Hurley. “It is certainly a spring model of May in the United States.”
Judson Jones,, Yan Zhuang And Nazaneen Ghaffar Contributed reports.
